The invention relates to a data processing system which is composed of three data processing modules which include mutually corresponding processing means and storage modules which are connected thereto, which data processing system includes an interconnection network which is connected to first outputs of the data processing modules in order to apply multi-bit processing results of k.gtoreq.4 bits each from any data processing module to the other data processing modules, each data processing module including an input decoder which is connected to the interconnection network and which includes a second output which is connected to the local processing means in order to reconstruct a correct k-bit input word from mutually incongruent processing results even in the case of failure of one data processing module. Using a triplication operation, a majority decision can be taken on the basis of the processing results. Congruent is to be understood to mean herein that the respective processing results in the non-disturbed state represent the same information. The data processing system can thus continue to operate correctly even when one of the data processing modules becomes defective and outputs unreliable information.
It is known that such data processing modules usually exhibit a mutually independent failure behavior. When one module fails, the other two modules can detect the faulty module and ignore it on the basis of a majority decision. The generator matrix of the error protection code used in the known system can be written as: EQU G=(III), (1)
in which (I) is the identity matrix of dimension k.times.k (k is the number of bits of the information from each module). The invention is based on the idea that additional error protection can be achieved by the described degree of redundancy.